On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Dan Halbert <halbert at everyzing.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > What is the most practical method to replace the hard drive? > > > > > > > Install another drive (same size or larger), boot from CD in rescue > > > mode and use the dd utility to copy the old drive image to the new > > > disk (example: dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb). However, the failing > > > hardware could make this problematic. Then remove the dying disk and > > > install the new disk on the cable where the old disk was so that the > > > new disk is now /dev/hda. > > > > > > > > > > Tried this, I should have been more clear above. When I access certain > > sectors the machine reboots. > > > > Just to confirm: you mean the machine reboots even when this disk is not a > system disk? Suppose you mount it readonly (maybe it's doing atime updates > unsuccessfully?)? Why mount it at all? Booting from CentOS CD in rescue mode gives you the option of not mounting the existing CentOS installation. dd does not need mounted file systems. With the exception of possible IDE conroller issues, booting from CD and not mounting is as good as putting the disk in another machine. > > If it's a peculiarity of the controller, you could try putting it in as a > data disk in another machine with a different kind of disk controller. You > could even put it in a Windows box and use one the various free utilities to > look at the Linux filesystem - perhaps that would not exercise whatever > issue is causing the reboots. > > If you've gotten the vital data off and any customizations out of /etc, the > crontabs, etc., then if possible, maybe you could just do an > "rpm -q -a" to get the current package list, and then diff that against the > list you get on a fresh install to figure out what you need to add. > > Dan -- Jeff